


The Wisdom of Ghosts

by HiddenJedi



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Jedi, Jedi Training, Reflection, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-01 22:48:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5223947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenJedi/pseuds/HiddenJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This story takes place in Season One between Episode 7 'Gathering Forces' and Episode 8 'The Path of the Jedi'.<br/>It is intended to bridge the gap between the events of the episodes and introduce something of Kanan's back story and motivations for seeking the wisdom of ancient Jedi in 'The Path of the Jedi'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Wisdom of Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I lay no claim whatsoever to any of the characters, locations, settings or technologies mentioned within the story- all of which are the property of Disney/Lucasfilm.
> 
> This is a fan work and not intended for any other purpose but speculative entertainment.

The wind flowing over the Lothal planes made the long grasses shimmer like an endless golden sea. Kanan shielded his eyes as he scanned the horizon. Reaching out into the Force, he could sense nothing but his crewmates aboard the Ghost and a small family of Loth-cats to the south of their position. Kanan was pleased, they had chosen their hiding spot well. It was isolated and the large rocky formations a small way south from the ship would shield it from prying eyes.

Sitting on a rocky outcrop overlooking the ship, Kanan smiled to himself as he regarded the compact Correlian freighter that served as their source of transportation, firepower, headquarters and, more importantly, their home. Able to mask its signature and outrun most Imperial ships, the Ghost and its crew had been able to operate with relative impunity in their ongoing mission to disrupt the Empire's operations on Lothal. Coming and going as they pleased, fooling Imperial officials and helping out those in need on Lothal had been Kanan's original plan, but lately things had become more difficult as they had gained the Empire's attention. For all their efforts at being clandestine in their ongoing quest to hamper, humiliate and fight the hated Galactic Empire in any way they could, the Ghost and its crew of 'Spectres' was increasingly high profile. Something which concerned Kanan and the Ghost's captain, Hera Syndulla.

 

The first step had been the bounties on their heads, which Kanan and Hera had expected, then the attentions of the relentless Agent Kallus of the Imperial Security Bureau. He'd been dogged in his attempts to capture them, coming very close on a few occasions, but as soon as Kanan had been forced to reveal himself as a Jedi, Kallus hadn't hesitated to call in a specialist. Like a good Imperial soldier, he'd adhered to protocol and contacted this... Inquisitor. Kanan shifted on his rocky perch and felt himself becoming agitated. He felt anger and, he was ashamed to admit to himself, not a little dread at the thought of facing the Inquisitor again. He'd been lucky to escape with Ezra's help the first time they'd encountered the pale, gaunt figure. Kanan frowned as he remembered the details. The Inquisitor flourished that double bladed lightsaber with great skill, he grudgingly admitted, and he could clearly use the Dark Side of the Force. A customised, double bladed 'saber that could be set to spin on its axis like a whirling disc of death was one thing, but his command of Dark Side techniques was what truly disquieted Kanan. In order to survive the Jedi Purge, he'd hidden his identity and shunned anything that could mark him as a Jei. He'd turned away from his own training and connection to the Force for so long, he knew his own skills with a lightsaber were rusty and slowly returning to him. It had been nearly fifteen years since Kanan had trained against another Jedi using a lighsaber in a friendly sparring session, let alone faced an aggressive and determined attacker bent on his destruction using one.

 

More difficult was the knowledge that he was struggling to truly connect to the Force itself, and to learn trust it after so long living looking over his shoulder for Jedi hunters like the Inquisitor. He'd been outmatched again by him in their last encounter on the old Clone Wars era base, and it had been Ezra who'd managed to distract the Inquisitor long enough for Kanan to recover and escape with his new Padawan. Kanan frowned. Ezra had been so afraid of the Inquisitor and angry at seeing him injure Kanan, he'd reached out and connected to the Dark Side, using it to combat his enemy before being overwhelmed by it. To Kanan's mind, this was a dangerous and disquieting development. The responsibility of training Ezra weighed on him properly, and not for the first time, he chided himself for not warning him about the temptations of the Dark Side and its easy path to power, and the terrible price it exacted.

 

Not for the first time, Kanan mourned the loss of the Jedi from the galaxy, and with them, their knowledge and wisdom. He had barely been Ezra's age when the Clone Troopers he thought of as friends turned on him and killed his master, Deppa Bilaba. Since then he'd hidden his lightsaber and the precious Jedi Holocron given to him by his master in locked drawers, strong boxes or whatever secure and secret places he could find when he moved to a new place. He'd drifted all over the galaxy, taking an assortment of jobs for several years, both legal and otherwise, getting drunk on a regular basis and enjoying whatever female company he encountered. The Jedi hadn't really prepared him for puberty, never mind the finer points of relationships with the opposite sex. Of any species for that matter. He found that he was a sucker for strong, beautiful women with fiery personalities fairly quickly, especially ones that enjoyed a good party and helped him forget about his old life. Then he met _her_.

 

The mysterious Hera Syndulla. He'd been been working as a cargo hauler on the rough mining world of Gorse, living over a bar, and spending most of his wages there, when he'd encountered her. He'd been smitten as soon as he'd laid eyes on her, even though she'd been mostly hidden beneath a hooded cloak. It had been those bright green eyes that had done it, he knew. There was a fire in them, but not an angry one. The fire of hope. She was beautiful, confident but unlike his previous romances, she was committed to something, barely noticing his clumsy attempts to sweet talk her. Something drove her. She had a mission on that planet. He learned that Hera was more than capable in a street brawl, and had a knack for avoiding the attention of any Imperials, but there something else. She cared. She truly cared about the powerless people that lived and often died under the brutal heel of the Empire. Meeting her had made Kanan realise that hiding from the Empire for all those years had made him so wary of making friends or letting anyone get close to him that he'd forgotten what it was like to truly care about other people. What it felt like to have friends. What it felt like to have a purpose; all the things he'd had as a Jedi Padawan. Kanan closed his eyes as he reached out for Hera through the Force. He could feel her warmth, compassion and clear sense of purpose radiating out to him like a sun. He realised he'd been smiling. Good thing Ezra or Zeb hadn't happened by him; he must have looked pretty ridiculous grinning to himself with his eyes closed and sitting on top of a rock. Being outside by himself had helped him calm his mind and eased the stress of his worries. He'd been ruminating at first, but felt that had turned to reflection, and now that he had acknowledged his anxieties to himself, he could do something about them.

 

He decided to meditate in the Force, in private, so he could find the answers that he sought through its guidance. Maybe it would help him solve his problems with Ezra. No, that wasn't right. Ezra wasn't the problem, Kanan knew. The problem was that he wasn't sure if he'd bitten off more than he could chew in taking on the task of training Ezra in the ways of the Force. Not for the first time, he wished his old master or another fully trained Jedi Knight was around to guide them both. The last Jedi he'd heard from was Master Obi-Wan, warning all surviving Jedi to stay away from the Jedi Temple... _Of course!_

  
The Holocron. The Jedi Holocron his master gave him might have what he needed to know. He got up, dusted himself off and returned to the Ghost. On board, he could hear Zeb's deep snoring through the steel door to the cabin he shared with Ezra, which meant that Ezra was likely wherever Sabine was. Kanan didn't mind the boy's obvious infatuation with her, but it certainly didn't help him focus on his Jedi training either. He'd better not be late again. Kanan closed the door to his quarters and sat cross legged on his bunk. He did a breathing exercise for several minutes, breathing in deeply, and exhaling slowly until his mind was clear and at peace. He began to feel the Force calling to him and he opened himself fully to it. It felt like slowly falling into a deep well of gently moving water, through which he could feel his senses fully awakening. The Force surrounded him and his crewmates, it flowed through through them and bound them all together as one. He opened his eyes and saw that the Force had pulled the Holocron from its hiding place and activated it. 'Trust yourself, trust the Force', the words of Master Obi-Wan echoed in his mind. Kanan reached out and felt more than saw the huge store of the Holocron's knowledge. It opened up its starmap database as a clear blue holographic projection without Kanan so much as moving a muscle. The starmap highlighted the locations of all the Jedi Temple scattered throughout the Outer Rim of the galaxy, from ancient Tython to Tattooine, then zoomed in tight on the systems closest to the Ghost's location.  
Kanan opened his eyes. There, wreathed in light blue was Lothal with a flashing blue star on its northern hemisphere, indicating something Kanan could scarcely believe.  
  
A Jedi Temple.

 


End file.
